Last year’s Community Coat Drive collected more than 600 winter coats for kids in need when organizer Cyndi Baker said she was only hoping for 200.

“It was amazing,” she said. “But they’re gone.”

Baker and other businesses are partnering with My Neighbor in Need’s Student in Need program once again not just to provide coats, but other winter goods like boots, hats, gloves and snowpants in all sizes to outfit kids and keep them warm this winter.

Great Falls, MT. My Neighbor in Need will kick-off its 2nd annual, Student Community Coat & Winter Gear Drive on Wednesday, October 14. The coat drive will continue for two-weeks concluding on October 28th.

Last year’s inaugural coat drive brought in 615 coats and hundreds of gloves and hats. “Last year’s goal was 300 coats and that was reached in less than 10-days, said Kim Wombolt, Executive Director or My Neighbor in Need. “The support we received from our community exceeded all of our dreams. To ask for 300 coats and to receive 615 coats was simply amazing!”

Friday, October 2nd will kick-off the Christmas season at Electric City Coffee (319 Central Avenue) from 5:00 – 9:00 pm at the First Friday Art Walk.

From October 2nd until Christmas, folks can come into Electric City to donate children’s mittens or gloves. My Student In Need will distribute these mittens to children at various schools in Great Falls. You may also give a donation of any amount for My Student In Need to purchase mittens.

$25 if you preregister or $30 on day of race. Shirts included for 14 and older. Kids 14 and under run for free!
2nd annual memorial run in honor of Stacy Frey Neild
Benefiting My Student in Need
Kid’s activities will include an obstacle course area.
To Register: Find us on Facebook or click the button below.

Questions? call/text 788-9915.

It’s a great concept. Tell people about those who need help, through the Great Falls Tribune, websites, social media and other outlets, and people will respond with kindness.

My Neighbor in Need is a great idea, and it’s flourishing in Cascade County, northcentral Montana and beyond, into 44 cities, including 11 in Wisconsin. Montana cities include Chinook, Havre, and in Cascade and Teton counties.

My Neighbor In Need fulfills 5,000th request- GF Tribune Article

When Angela went to My Neighbor In Need, she was looking for a way to help others.
Instead, she became the 5,000th need request filled by the organization in its three years of operation.
“What a great day!” Dave Snuggs, the founder of My Neighbor In Need, said in a media release. “Originally I thought that if we could fulfill 200 need requests per year that would be wonderful. I never thought that we would be celebrating the completion of our 5,000th need fulfillment in just a little more than three years of operation.”
Angela, who did not want to use her last name because she works in a sensitive social services field, said at a news conference announcing the 5,000th fulfilled request that she was blown away by My Neighbor In Need.

Inspired by the weekly stories of students in need printed in the Great Falls Tribune, Beau and Raean Bilbrey, co-owners of All State Signs, made the decision to help the students in need in their community. However, selecting which need to fulfill was daunting. “How do you pick one student’s need over another?” asked Raean Bilbrey. “With six children of our own, we could not just fulfill one or two. It was all or nothing!”

The couple contacted My Student in Needand said they wanted to fulfill every need request in Great Falls for the entire month of February. “I was simply blown away by their offer of kindness,” said Dave Snuggs, president and founder of My Student in Need. “We have had other caring folks fulfill multiple needs but to offer to fulfill every request for an entire month … amazing.”

From the creators of My Neighbor in Need, www.mystudentinneed.org is a website that provides a private and nurturing way for teachers and faculty members to ask for help for a student in need and a way for the community to give back.

Two milestones are celebrated

My Student in Need, a division of My Neighbor in Need, has expanded its “Reach of Hope” to the Hi-Line by providing the free service to Havre schools. This brings the number of schools using the My Student in Need system to 70.

In addition, My Student in Need has just completed its 1,000th need request fulfillment. The website and system is the creation of Great Falls resident Dave Snuggs and through a partnership with Havre schools, allows for selected school administrators to submit a request for help with a specific need, such as school supplies, clothing, lunch money, etc. for their students in need. Need requests are posted live on the www.mystudentinneed.org where anyone in the world can review them and offer help to fulfill the request.

No one knows the identity of the student except the teachers, who are encouraged to notify the school administrators when one of their students may be in need. The only information provided to the school administrator is the age, gender, grade and need of the student. Once the needed item is donated, the teacher presents the item to the student in a nurturing and private setting.

Cynthia Delgado was broke, unemployed and didn’t have a car — but she was determined.

With no money for a bus pass, the 50-something woman decided she had to walk to where she needed to go; sometimes 20 or 30 blocks to pick up or drop off a job application. It wasn’t so bad in the summer, but as summer transitioned into fall and the daytime highs plummeted from the upper 70s to below freezing, walking two or three miles each way got harder to do.

By late November, Delgado still didn’t have a full-time job. It was getting harder and harder to make the hours-long journeys necessary to change her fortunes.

“I walked a lot,” she said matter-of-factly. “When I’d show up for a job interview, I was already exhausted.”

Finally Delgado turned to the My Neighbor in Need for a helping hand. The Great Falls based social networking program found a donor willing to buy a bus pass for Delgado. That small act of compassion has made a world of difference in her life.

“They were able to help me with the bus fares so I could get to job interviews, to get pick up applications on the other side of town,” Delgado said. I finally landed a job in December, so I’m working full time now. I love my job.”

Hers is only one of thousands of lives that have been made better over the past three years by the internet based charitable organization.